Is that the entry door? I’m confused about your house I see a upstairs door is this a duplex? If this is your entry door then I would suggest a new door more interesting door, if not I would paint it the same color you end up with on your garage door. Could you take a picture of what is up those stairs next to this door? I could see you doing Sherwin-Williams alabaster a beautiful creamy white dressing up your garage door since it is so prominent either do it in black with a pergola over the top or a woodgrain here are a couple of pictures.

You would better better off getting the HOA approved colors and picking one. In the mean time, here are two ideas.

Likewhatyoudo.

Thank you for the comment. I should have been a little more clear with the house description, since it's oddly shaped and looks like a duplex. It is not. The door you referenced is a side door to the garage. The stairs lead up to the front door, which is the level of our main living area. The groundfloor/basement is built slightly into the house. We won't be submitting our house to fancy architectural design magazines but we love it (our first home). I'm not sure if you attached additional pictures other than the one. Alabaster sounds very nice; I seem to recall the color from other threads

Let me know if these pics help:

Stairs next to side door garage leading up to the front door.

Front door.

Houssaon:

Thanks for the mock up, great way for me to visualize some new colors. The HOA did have a color list but they have relaxed it. I think it came out after the homes were build in the mid-90's but you are correct, I need to follow up with them

Thanks for the clarification on the doors! Are the stairs and hand rail painted wood or is that composite decking. I like this combination for your house if the railing and stairs can be painted. SW pavestone shown on the shutters paint the body of the house and the trim SW alabaster and pick a pretty blue for the entry door or do the SW pavestone on the entry door, garage door and side garage door. New updated lights and add some potted plants to the porch, side garage door and garage doors.

I also like the combination of the darker SW peppercorn (garage doors ,stair and railing) SW oyster white (body and trim) and Sw Copen blue entry door.

I wish the stairs were composite. I had those things painted last year and it's already chipping! Did you read my mind? The last picture you added two posts above looks like very similar colors of a house that we love. We even left a note for the owners asking what their paint is but never heard back from them

Thanks so much for the ideas; these are really great. One question. Most of the houses on our street have a different color for the stucco (usually slightly darker) and the siding. We have stucco on the lower portion of the house and garage. Do you think there should be difference in color?

I couldn't agree more to new lights. I've been wanting to do those for ages and just haven't done it. Time to leave 1994 behind.

I would not paint the stucco a different color I would paint the trim, stucco everything all the same white color for a cleaner more modern look.

Hi Likewhatyoudo,

Since Houzz threads move so fast mine is likely long gone. I had a clarifying question that was posted above: " SW pavestone shown on the shutters paint the body of the house and the trim SW alabaster and pick a pretty blue for the entry door". I wasn't sure what you meant by SW pavestone since we don't have shutters. Where did you mean to use SW pavestone in that part of the sentence.?

My wife and I are really liking the look of a white house with black trim. BUT:

• we have a brown roof
• our summers are hot. 90-100 and the house faces South/Southwest.
• Our house isn't "modern" or farm house.
• So...likely a non starter for us. But we really are starting to like that look

The HOAs responded and are very easy going. Basically they said do something nice that fits into the neighborhood and don't pick pink. I can live with that

Thank you and hope you are having a nice weekend

@blaze_1508 I don’t think a house has to be farmhouse or modern to look beautiful painted white. I would paint the side door, garage door, stairs and railing gray. Body of the house and all the trim in white, entry door in blue or any color that you love! If you can’t get new light fixtures then spray paint the white ones a flat or Matte black. Dress up the entry with a nice rug and plants. For the trim and the doors use a semi gloss sheen for the body of the house low-luster or satin sheen paint. Hope this helps!

hi blaze. I just got your msg. I have a stucco home. It so hard to get good photos because the sun is alway shining from behind the house. so here's a shot of the backyard that shows the colors

I went from a very spanish gold and copper color, to the grays/black/white tones. Here is what I used. (the platinum is used only on the fascia because I thought it would look better next to the charcoal roof tiles. well, as you can see, once up, they look like a very light gray. I used the wrought iron on all the other trim

I have a lot of this trim work around the house, kind of like you do.

I think you could do the stucco in the Swiss (trust me, it looks bright white once on the home). if you get it in a satin or even a semi gloss, the dirt and grime just hoses right off. you could do the siding portion in a darker, contrasting color. (or, vice versa. go light on the siding)

the peak above your garage doors, might look cool done in a horizontal wood. you can something like a cedar james Hardie siding for no maintenance. see how they did in their gable? you'd do yours like that over the garage

then paint the garage doors your darker trim color ( i just had this dark gray photo on hand only for an example. you could do darker or lighter, any color) (a new light too)

the other option is to do a gable accent with some redwood or something. doesn't have to be this elaborate. just some natural wood to enhance the front of the home.

you could also just do that gable in a cedar shake (or composite shake)

here's a home with dark doors, a darker body and the white trim. since you have the stucco and siding, your would be half and half

So, until you get an ok from the HOA on colors, we can't really suggest anything, but maybe you can show them some of these

these will all work w/the brown room. Pick, 2-3 colors that you like.

For instance, the Foggy day would look great on the siding, the white stucco, and the red on the door. Plus, these would look amazing w/those wood accents I mentioned.

Hi Beth,

These are such wonderful suggestions and we will take time to look at everything suggested. I don't think I mentioned it in previous posts but our roof is brown with some orange. I had never noticed roofs until recently and wish we had something in grey/blackish tones. Oh well...it's a pretty new roof form the previous owners, so can't complain that much.

We were on a family run this weekend and saw a house color we really liked, similar to some of those posted. We left a note and turns out the trim was peppercorn. Still not sure that would go with our rough and something gray like that.

The HOAs are very relaxed and said we don't have to worry about colors, just be respectful of the neighborhood and don't paint it pink. I can roll with that.

Thank you to everyone who has posted, I may have a few question as we narrow colors, and we appreciate the time you spent.

well....I think we may be getting closer to deciding, which is hard to believe. We received swatches from samplize and really like SW Alabaster for the body (stucco and siding) and SW Peppercorn for some of the trim. We still need to look at the peppercorn in different lights because of the brown/orange roof. I think we will go to SW so that we can paint a larger poster board.

Now....the door. We want something fun. I'll check out SW Copen Blue and BM Hamilton Blue (that Beth posted). I think we may want something a little more bold than Copen Blue. Any other ideas that would go with Alabaster and Peppercorn trim. Maybe a teal like color or is that too much? SW Naval? Anything else?

Thank you!

Sounds like you’re off to a good start! as far as the door color if you paint it and you don’t like it it’s not that hard to paint it a different color. Post pictures when you get the samples.

do you want more of a cobalt or more teal? what's the door look like?

here are the two you like on the left, and some choices that look nice w/them

this lighter blue looks nice surrounded by the white. I also like this door style. (You don't have one of those faux Victorian doors do you?)

We were/are thinking about a new door. I think we may wait another year or so but still undecided.

SW Georgian Bay looks pretty fun. Time to get some more sample

I think our door is straight out of 1994, see attached. We also may pull of the glass door, we never use it. It faces South and cooks the house when the main door is open

oh ok,,it's not the one I was thinking. The exterior has never been painted, as you can see the primer coat quite clearly. (see the yellowing around the window?) BTW, you could prob have that arched window cut out and replaced w/a more modern looking glass. maybe check w/a door glass business?

(Hardware too)

you can also look on craigslist for people unloading front doors. sometimes they have some really nice deals on solid wood doors.

For instance, if you find a solid wood vintage door, you can easily make them into a Dutch door.

are you keeping the storm door? I'd prob paint the edging to match whatever color you do the door

here are some Teal shades. I've painted w/Naples Blue. it's rather bold and bright.

you know what else might look cool, doing the siding around the door in a cedar slat (or redwood) plank. Of course you're also painting the porch floor and steps too , yes?

I'd paint the porch in the peppercorn color, along w/the railing.

not so much this door style, but the color is a dark, teal or peacock color. looks great w/the wood siding. and then the surrounding siding in the white, darker porch, (maybe even paint the ceiling w/the peppercorn!!) would look really nice.

some darker teal shades like that door.

another door style and light

here is another dark color. SW Iron Ore. may have a bit more brown to it than Peppercorn. (I also like this door style for your home) And notice the stone accents around the front porch. If the wood idea doesn't suit you, maybe something like this?

Wow, so many great options for this person that can't decide anything! I'm joking (sort of), these are some really fun options to check out.

Storm Door: We aren't sure if we are keeping it. In the 4 years we have lived here we have never had the main door open to use the storm door. Our main living area, next to the main door, gets tons of light. But we think to ourselves, will we regret it in the future.

Steps: We were going to paint it Peppercorn but they chip so easily. We had it repainted last year; they did not strip the old paint. They did use Sherman Williams Superdeck They did a good job sanding and all that but it has already chipped in a year. We don't get a ton of rain (we are in Boise) or weather on the steps. So we may think about just putting in a composite next year. Our neighbors did that with the same steps. One of our bids includes the stairs.

Now...it's on the hunt for new exterior lights. We have some time to decide as the painters (we are still deciding on the bid) are booked through July.

I'll post some pics of samples once we decide and the finish product. Thank you all once again....we would have not found these colors without the suggestions.

The paint job is done and we couldn’t be more happy. I just want to say thanks to all for the help.

We ended up doing SW Alabaster for the body and SW Peppercorn for the trim, BM Meridian Blue for the door. Peppercorn is such a interesting color, sometimes it looks grey and other times of day with really nice brown undertones

We purchased new outdoor lights from Rejuvenation Carson lights...wow...they are really cool (and kinda spendy)

The pics are terrible because of light and smoke.

Thanks again for all the advice and ideas. Now we are thinking about a master bath remodel (I can barely decide paint. How am I going to deal with all those decisions 😀

looks good! (I hear ya about the smoke, and ash! it's horrible)

Whatever you decide get the hoa to approve your colors in writing before you paint. Too many nightmare stories dealing with hoa